Advice On Filling In Marriage Papers & Residence

[syngirl]

They are long, yeah, but when I read about people who stood apart for years to wait for a VISA to move to the US together, I pity them - I do not admire the system! It is not an act of strength, a proof of allegiance to the US soil, or whatever gobbledygooks you got in mind that makes this feel normal. It is not. Argentina did not ask this to you, European countries wouldn't, either. Look outside your US-centered bubble before assuming what's normal and what's not.

Actually this isn't a US-centered idea -- many, MANY countries require the same thing -- people think you can just marry and suddenly your partner can stay in the country, but it's actually not quite so easy, and a lot of countries simply don`t allow it to happen that way -- and a lot of it depends on the country of origin of the foreign spouse. A Honduran friend of mine married an Austrian, and then went through 1 yr of hell getting the paperwork sorted, and she ended up living back here in Argentina for the first 8 months of marriage. So much for the European countries just saying "oh but it's SOOO romantic, just come LIVE here already``.

 

[Girino]

I was not a resident of Argentina before married and I believe I still put my Argentine address.

At the Registro Civil they told me to put my foreign address and not my Argentine one.
Truth to be said, the Solicitud de Matrimonio form read "domicile" and not "residence", but since accuracy is not the highlight of Argentinian bureaucracy, I wouldn't surprised if on another form it would become a residence.

Worst case scenario: I'll have to get a FBI check.

Putting a US address isn´t really going to fool them.

I think what is not clear to you is that I am not "faking" to be a resident of the US. The US says that declaring myself as a non-US resident at any time will be used as evidence of abandoning my resident status.
It is not that I want to play the US-residency thing or that I want them to believe I was physically in the US - they know.
I got a re-entry permit, and in order to obtain it I had to state that I plan to stay out of the US between 1 and 2 years and why, and the re-entry permit means "okay, we know now", but doesn't mean that I stop being a US resident for 1-2 years.

 

[MDZ]

Why would you have to get an FBI check? I put my address in Argentina on the form (while on a turist visa/stamp). I had no issues. The FBI check would be if you apply for residency at migraciones afterward.

 

[sleslie23]

Don't give her a hard time. How many expats have been making the run to Colonia year after year as a perma tourist when they very well know that they should have gotten a visa? She just wants the best of all three countries.

Don't we all. Unfortunately that requires bureaucracy and, unfortunately, bureaucracy is frequently inconvenient.

Personally, I don't see the USA in Serafina's future. I've known several people (Europeans) who assumed they could just go back to the US a few weeks per year after getting their green card. They ended up losing it because of that assumption, primarily because they could not produce a believable paper trail.

 

[nlaruccia]

I got my old marriage certificate out of the file cabinet. I was here on a tourist visa living in a student residence and I married an Argentine in 2001. In the domicilio part, I just put the state I was from in the U.S. where I had my residence. I didn't even write a street address or the city. Since I didn't have a DNI at the time, I used my passport. Maybe things have gotten more complicated the last thirteen years.

 

[Girino]

Don't we all. Unfortunately that requires bureaucracy and, unfortunately, bureaucracy is frequently inconvenient.

Personally, I don't see the USA in Serafina's future. I've known several people (Europeans) who assumed they could just go back to the US a few weeks per year after getting their green card. They ended up losing it because of that assumption, primarily because they could not produce a believable paper trail.

When I was given a GC, I could get married *before* heading to the US Embassy in Italy and get a GC for my bf (oddly enough, if you marry "before" getting a GC is a whole another story). But he didn't want to marry "for bureaucracy" and he said he'd never move again, after moving forcedly from Argentina to Italy in tender age. Even taking a job in northern Switzerland would have been a problem to him (4 hours by car from where we lived at the time).
So, I was the only one willing to move to the US. Or to move anywhere.

One year and half later, I had been unemployed as a engineer in Italy for a year, his work project failed, and suddenly the idea of moving abroad was okay to both.
Too bad the GC ship had already sailed, so we moved to Argentina because it is cheap and we can support ourselves by freelancing, plus he already knows the place, has family here and he could sponsor him.

We went on a 40-days exploration trip in the US before moving here, from NH down to FL. We tried to talk to people as much as possible to get a grasp of their lives. We talked to managers, veterans, waiters, assistant professors, engineers, other expats, etc.
First of all, it is very hard to have people open up to strangers, but that's typical of non-Latin people.
Second, it is very hard to actually meet people there, mostly they are staged meetings (i.e. a coffee chat, a meetup, a gathering of people sharing the same interest).
Third, they live in their homes, cars and offices, so it was kind of impossible to run into someone casually while walking (!!!) and to interact with them.
Fourth, it is really clear that everything in the US revolves around work and money, so if you ask someone how are they doing, they probably reply with something about their work or the stuff they can afford. Or they simply shut it off with "I am fine, thanks, and you?". Truth to be said, most of the people we run to never lived abroad and were short-sighted.


Anyway, our findings: you need a lot of money to have decent life style in the US. With decent, I mean at the same level we could afford in Italy and we have here. The biggest issue is the health care, of course. It is kind of hard to foresee how much would it cost to have health insurance for the both of us if we keep freelancing. I don't understand fully the Obamacare, if we would fit, or if you need to support that with a private insurance anyway.

I'd like to resume my engineering career but working in the US is a major change in life style. Plus, I really like working in construction sites, and they are usually far from big cities, you have to work a lot of hours, possibly on shift. I liked doing that when I was just a newbie in the job market, but I admit I had no private nor social life because I was there 12 hours a day as a minimum. I am sure this would not sit well with my partner.

So, at the moment I have no actual plan in the US - I can either try to take my freelancing business to the next step or try to go back to engineering, but then, again, I would need to pack my stuff and go now, which is NOT what we agreed upon (it's two or none). As I said, living in the US is MY dream, not his, so I should be the one paving the road ahead for the both of us. Anyway, he agrees that you can never know in life (and especially in Argentina), so we would like to keep that door open, although on the practical side, he is very alike to syngirl's husband.

I try to meet as many people from the US as I can, but in Italy I found only Americans enthusiast of Italy that would never go back to their (add negative adjectives to your liking here) home country, and here I found only you people from BAExpat who decided they like Argentina more than the US.
At one BAExpats meeting we met a nice couple who suggested to try with the West Coast, if we wanted more social life, instead. We will look into that.
Also, I would like to buy a property in the US as an investment opportunity, although I don't have a lifetime saving to invest, just some savings.

 

[BaltRochGirl]

I try to meet as many people from the US as I can, but in Italy I found only Americans enthusiast of Italy that would never go back to their (add negative adjectives to your liking here) home country, and here I found only you people from BAExpat who decided they like Argentina more than the US.
At one BAExpats meeting we met a nice couple who suggested to try with the West Coast, if we wanted more social life, instead. We will look into that.
Also, I would like to buy a property in the US as an investment opportunity, although I don't have a lifetime saving to invest, just some savings.

The main problem is there are so many options of places to live in the US and they all can be very different from each other, so where you would enjoy living depends on your lifestyle, I'm sure there are tons of places where you would be happy and comfortable, it's just hard for many people who haven't lived in a lot of different places to think that way. If you have questions send me a PM I'd be happy to give you some answers/ideas.